May I Have This Dance?

Haha. If you know me well, you know I’d rather be a wall flower than step onto the dance floor. I easily managed to avoid all high school dances, except one prom. And then, barely danced at that, probably much to my date’s dismay. After that, so many moons ago, I don’t think I danced again until my wedding–at which time any dear friends in attendance watched with humor at my awkward movements. But today, I felt the rhythm surging through my body.

It all began on my way to the vernal pool. Perhaps it was really just a shiver as the breeze blew across the last of the snow, hard packed still along the snowmobile trail.

Or maybe it was the depression that held the snowmelt and was covered with an oil slick of sorts . . .

which turned out to be a million springtails bopping to their own tunes.

It could have been the sudden sight of so many trailing arbutus plants that got me going.

Certainly I wasn’t the only one excited by those flowers yet to be. (Do you see the springtail on the tip of the bud?)

Or it might have been the ever shrinking ice cover at the pool that made my feet tap.

Perhaps it was the fallen beech leaves atop tree reflections that forced me to sway.

Or the way the hemlock, oak, maple and beech leaves intermingled.

What I do know is that there was no stopping me once I spotted spotted salamander spermatophores atop leaves in several open sections–the sperm being located at the top of the cauliflower-shaped platforms.

And then I saw something swim under some leaves that really got me rocking. Do you see the face of the wood frog, hiding as best it could?

As I began to circle around the dance floor, I noticed an offering of scat that made me think a red fox had sashayed beside the pool.

On my own sashay home, I discovered that there were other dancers in the midst–this one possibly a sharp-shinned hawk.

And after that a woodpecker.

And then a junco.

Along the cowpath, the red maple flowers blushed as I might were I to get all gussied up in a flowing dress.

Much the way a suitor might wink, so much has happened so quickly. Within the past week the snow melted almost entirely away and winter released its hold on me. Now I’m ready to groove with the choreography of spring’s rhythm. I hope you’ll join me on the dance floor.